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Mark for Everyone - Peter’s Declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship
Mark for Everyone - Peter’s Declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 8.22–30 Peter’s Declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship... ...It’s quite a walk from Bethsaida to Caesarea Philippi. Even in a car, on modern roads, the trip takes an hour or two. Bethsaida is near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee; Caesarea Philippi is away …
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on Divorce
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on Divorce
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 10.1–16 Teachings on Divorce... ...In Britain during the early 1990s, from time to time a journalist would telephone a bishop or theologian to ask about divorce. It happened to me once. It’s a question every church, every member of the clergy, has to think …
Mark for Everyone - The Death of Jesus
Mark for Everyone - The Death of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 15.33–39 The Death of Jesus... ...There are times when I envy musical composers, and this is one of them. If I were capable of setting this brief but shocking story to music, I know how I would start. Darkness at noon: low chords on the heavy brass, a brood…
Mark for Everyone - The Feeding of the Four Thousand
Mark for Everyone - The Feeding of the Four Thousand
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 8.1–10 The Feeding of the Four Thousand... ...Two more loaves, a thousand less people, and five fewer baskets remaining. It’s almost like a dream; we’ve heard the story before, it seems, two chapters earlier, and yet it’s different. The disciples seem to be…
Mark for Everyone - The Triumphal Entry
Mark for Everyone - The Triumphal Entry
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 11.1–11 The Triumphal Entry... ...If you’ve ever been to the Holy Land, you will know that to go from Jericho to Jerusalem involves a long, hard climb. Jericho is the lowest city on earth, over 800 feet below sea level. Jerusalem, which is only a dozen or s…
Mark for Everyone - The Parable of the Tenants
Mark for Everyone - The Parable of the Tenants
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.1–12 The Parable of the Tenants... ...Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice is normally listed as a comedy. The main characters all end up with their problems resolved. But the last two or three times I have seen the play I have come away feeling tha…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Parable of the Talents
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Parable of the Talents
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Talents Matthew 25.14-30 As I write this, all over this country there are students – including one of my own children – who are taking examinations. In some cases these are not particularly serious. They will merely give the teachers and pupils a sense of how m…
Mark for Everyone - The Request of James and John
Mark for Everyone - The Request of James and John
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 10.32–45 The Request of James and John... ...What comes to mind first when you think of the crucifixion of Jesus? Perhaps you think of going to church and singing well- known hymns: ‘There is a green hill far away’, or ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’. Pe…
Mark for Everyone - True Greatness
Mark for Everyone - True Greatness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 9.30–37 True Greatness... ...I don’t know whether Mark wants us to feel sorry for the disciples at this point, but quite frankly I do. Earlier in the gospel Jesus said things to them in code, and they didn’t get it. The parables were secret, hidden messages…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fifth Sunday of Easter John 13.31-35 Gaze on the supper table. The meal is over, the table strewn with crumbs, the cups empty of wine, and the plates greasy. The feast is finished and the disciples are tired. They are all anxious after they have been warned of betrayal, and c…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 20 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 20 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 20 Jeremiah 11.18-20 James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a Mark 9.30-37 What an emotional roller-coaster ride the disciples are on by this stage of Jesus’s ministry. Not that life with Jesus had ever been boring, exactly, but at least they had known what they were doing. Or they had though…
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
Glorify the Son John 17.1-8 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is full of action. Ghosts, murders, love scenes, plots, accidental killings, betrayals, recriminations and more plots. The play highlights the indecision of the hero when faced with huge problems, and this results in pauses he…
Mark for Everyone - Clean and Unclean
Mark for Everyone - Clean and Unclean
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 7.14–23 ..Back to jokes again. Have you ever told a joke and seen a row of blank stares? They didn’t get it? What can you do? Explain it? Surely that’ll take all the fun out of it. Yes, but a parable isn’t a joke. This one in particular was no laughing matt…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul in Ephesus
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul in Ephesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul in Ephesus Acts 19.1-10 The response of the disciples Paul met at Ephesus has passed into common parlance, at least among theologians. Not long ago I was helping to organize a conference, and was inviting distinguished speakers from various parts of the world to attend and r…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Seeing and Not Seeing
John for Everyone Part 1 - Seeing and Not Seeing
by SPCK - N T Wright
Seeing and Not Seeing John 9.35-41 Who decides when the picture is in focus? I attended a lecture the other night in which the speaker showed us some wonderful colour slides of medieval paintings of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The colour was magnificent; the interpretati…
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on the Sabbath
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on the Sabbath
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 2.23–28 Teachings on the Sabbath... ...The twentieth century saw a great deal of secret police activity. The KGB in the Soviet Union, and the Stasi in East Germany, were legends in their own lifetime during the Communist period. Several countries in Central…
Hebrews for Everyone - The Finished Achievement of the Messiah
Hebrews for Everyone - The Finished Achievement of the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Finished Achievement of the Messiah Hebrews 10.11-18 Many of us in the modern world do our work sitting down. I’m sitting at a desk as I write this; I’m aware that my posture isn’t perfect, that I’m in danger of getting stiff shoulders, and that if I took more time to walk ar…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Healing of the Demoniacs